Compare And Contrast Jamestown And Massachusetts Bay Colonies

Starting in the early 17th century the English began exploring the New World. Amongst the first groups to colonize included; the English in Virginia, Plymouth, and the Massachusetts Bay. Individually the colonies had their own reasons for inhabitation and exploration. They endured many circumstances that obstructed the beginning of their settlements. Each society evolved, adapted, and faltered in their separate ways. Each colony had differing original goals for settlement. In 1607 Virginia, 104 men reached the land they called Jamestown, a trip funded by the London Company. Their reason for colonization was that of mainly economic. They desired to use the land of the New World for the profit of the Old. In 1620, the Pilgrims of Plymouth
The choice of the Jamestown peninsula; believing it would provide security from the natives, proved to be a poor one. The land “was low and swampy and surrounded by thick woods” (Brinkley 35). They became susceptible to disease such as malaria. For the Pilgrims upon the Mayflower, intending to most likely land around the Hudson River; in what is now New York, instead discovered themselves on the Cape Cod. After some exploration, they found their settlement in Plymouth a land just outside the London Company’s region. The first winter claimed the lives of half their colonist due to malnutrition, disease and
The colony survived the first winter which claimed many. The Pilgrims made changes to the landscape of New England. In the early 1630s a smallpox epidemic almost eliminated the Indian population surrounding Plymouth. Due to the depleting number of wild animals, the Pilgrims worked very hard to domesticate animals, such as horses, cattle and sheep. “The Pilgrims’ experience with the Indians was, for a time, very different from the experiences of the early English settlers farther south. That was in part because of the remaining natives in the region-their numbers thinned by disease-were significantly weaker than their southern neighbors and realized they had to get along with the Europeans. In the end, the survival and growth of the colony depended crucially on the assistance they received from natives.” (Brinkley 42) With the help of Indian friends Squanto and Samoset, they learned how to fish, cultivate corn, and hunt animals. Squanto was also a help in forming an alliance between the settlers and the Wampanoags. This alliance was